As I was reading the sad story on ATP about an official government car, reportedly in the use of the Syed Safwanullah, Federal Minister of Housing and Works, crushing to death a 6-year old child, another incident which is even more tragic occured in Lahore and surprisingly got very little media attention initially.
According to Daily Times:
The case dates back to November 26, when Waseem Sajjad Malik, a cellular phone-company employee (resident of 292/293-B, Punjab Corporative Society), lost control of his car and hit a tree allegedly because of two racing cars near
Masjid Chowk in Defence. One of the two cars (LWJ-700) belonged to Faisal Farooq, son of a prominent confectioner. Waseem’s two-month old baby, born five years after his marriage, went through the screen and fell about 20 feet away. Waseem, his mother and his wife were injured. Waseem’s baby went into a comma right away. Passers-by caught Faisal Farooq, who fled when he saw that they were calling the police. The victims were admitted to hospital with multiple fractures and the baby died shortly after that. Defence police registered a case against Faisal Farooq.
Faisal Farooq’s family, close to senior police officers, intervened. Allegedly, Faisal Farooq, his uncles Mehmood and Maqsud, and five people carrying weapons went to the National Defence Hospital on November 29, where they threatened Waseem’s brother-in-law Mutahir and asked him to withdraw the case. They locked Mutahir in a room, allegedly, beat him up, and fled. Senior policemen then directed the Defence ASP to make sure another case was not registered, but another group of police officers also intervened and got a case registered.
A large number of people have received SMS messages on their mobile phones asking them to boycott the products of the confectionary chain owned by Faisal’s father. “Faisal Farooq, son of [the owner of a confectionary] hit a car while racing, killing a baby and injuring a family,� the message read. “Faisal and a squad of gunmen then threatened the family,� it says, “that if a case was registered, he would kill the rest of the family.� The SMS requested the readers to boycott the confectionary responding to the demand of “the soul of an innocent infant and the tears of his parents�.
Officials of the cellular phone company in which Wasim worked denied that they were involved in circulating the SMS. “How can we stop people from sending messages to each other on the subject?� the public relations manager said. People were free to SMS anybody they wanted, he said, and the company had not initiated the campaign. Police spokesman declined to speak on the issue and the CPC was not available for comment.
The confectionary, of course, is teh famous Nirala Sweet House.
I am not sure what to say about this. Incidents like this happen every now and then and only just a few become known to us. Waseem and his family have now got media attention 
and I am sure they have full support form Mobilink which will help them in a painfully slow, complicated and costly legal battle ahead. But in most cases, unfortunately, rich and powerful easily get away with murder and this happens everywhere.
The most unfortunate part of this story is that the baby is dead. Whatever we say or do now is useless in a way and nobody can bring him/her back. It also makes me wonder whats the logic of blessing someone a child after so many years and then take away in split second? Only Allah knows the best. We can only offer our prayers to the victim’s family.
Lets hope that all of us in Lahore will keep the pressure on, even if it means Boycotting Nirala. Lets exercise our basic right to protest against injustice which we have long forgotten as a nation. I know most of us feel powerless to prevent injustice but lets not fail to protest atleast. Myself (on Lahore Metroblog) and other bloggers have already taken up the issue (here, here, here, here and here; alternative viewpoint here) and the press is also begining to take notice (here, here and here).
Please call or email your friends and family in Pakistan - in Lahore, in Karachi - and ask them not to buy at or accept gifts from Nirala. I do not know if this will make a difference. But at least we would not have sat and done nothing. And who knows, maybe if enough of us boycott Nirala it will hurt these people where it hurts them most; in their wallets.
Darwaish blogs on his own blog la vie en rose and also contributes to Metroblog Lahore, where this post first appeared.
That rich driver should be hanged till death who has killed an innocent. I am really very much angry & ……not write able
Traffic situation in Pakistan has worsened to a point where it is simply horrible. For me traffic is one of the most scary things there. And of course no one wants to wear seat belts .. baby seats are completely out of question. Sometimes it appears to me that some people just drive dangerously to vent their frustration with the system.
Police report can only be there IF a case is registered and an investigation takes place. In my beloved Pakistan, we even struggle to start this step1 of the legal process particularly if other party is rich and influential (as in this case). I guess one of the problem with a certain social class in Pakistan, and perhaps it happens everywhere to some extent, is that in such incidents they do not want to go through the same legal procedure which is there for ordinary people, the poor in particular. If the accused in this case is not guilty then he should prove that in court like any other person would do.
Keeping in mind all the above issues and weakensses of Pakistan’s justice system, I think its extremely important for all of us to put pressure on authorities to atleast make sure that a legal procedure takes place and hope that some justice is served, whatever the outcome may be! And to achieve this if we have to boycott Nirala, I say its worth it!
This also reminds us the importance of seat belts and that children should always be on back seats of car. Belts save lives and driving without belt is just stupidity. I wish there was some awareness in public that at no cost the child should be in front seat. We dont have to know all this after a major accident.
If only our MNA’s and MPA’s were of any use, a number of such incidents could have been avoided and lives saved.
I would also use this momentum to make parents aware that seat belts/harnesses/baby car seats or call it whatever need to be used in automobiles. the poor childs life could have been saved had it been harnessed.
Maybe someday we will have a law enforcing car seats for our babies. They are our future and our responsibility.
I am not in favor of boycotting and I mentioned it in one of my blog entry here which was mentioned before the “alternative point of view” given by a reader. I think it’s not a wise decision to put several babies in danger for sake of a dead baby. Right tool for the right job, when there is a law then use it rather go for alternatives.
I always wonder why, we Pakistanies,have to dramatize everything? Do we know who was at fault during this accident? Do we know the details of the police report? I would agree though that going and threatening someone in a hospital is illegal and should not be tolorated and these people should be shunted and punished. Having said that, Why to boycott Niralla Sweets??Just another comment: Adil: I started visiting this site(ATP) few days ago and now I enjoy doing it everyday; I am not sure if you remember me. Regards, Moeen
Reminiscent of Hamid’s novel Mothsmoke– of course all fiction is based on some facts and facts are always stranger than fiction.
For those of you living outside the US, when you use various internet based gift services to send ’sweets’ to Pakistan in most (not all) cases they use Nirala Sweets.